Math, Meaning, & Message

Writing and communicating your thoughts is a skill you will need in just about any career you pursue — including a career in a mathematical field. Mathematics has long been celebrated as the language of the universe. As a subject, we love its elegance, permanence, and ubiquity.

Through language — symbols, writing, talk — we strive to communicate its beauty and its relevance to a variety of audiences. The purpose of this course is to develop your reasoning, writing, and presentation skills in the context of mathematics, as well as to help you find your own voice in this field of study.

An important objective of any mathematician is to learn to deliver their message and professional and personal insights in a way that makes sense to its intended audience. This course will run as a team-based learning class which will help you learn to work as partners.

To be an effective communicator, we will hone our skills in three dimensions: message (content), presenter (speaker/writer), and audience (reader/listener).

This course asks: Who gets to be a mathematician? How does mathematics participate in structures of power and belonging — and how can our voices reshape that?